Panasonic rebounds to Q3 profit, keeps forecast

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

A customer looks at electronic products near Panasonic Corp logos at an electronic store in Tokyo June 27, 2012.Yuriko Nakao

TOKYO (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp (6752.T) rebounded to a quarterly profit and stuck with its full-year earnings forecast, as it moves its business away from loss-making TVs in favor of household appliances, batteries and other non-consumer electronics.

In the three months to December 31, Panasonic posted an operating profit of 34.6 billion yen ($379 million), up from an 8.1 billion yen loss a year ago. In the nine months to December 31, Panasonic posted an operating profit of 121.95 billion yen.

The maker of Viera TVs kept its outlook for a full-year operating profit of 140 billion yen, below expectations for a 149 billion yen profit forecast from 18 analysts on Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company also kept its forecast for a net loss of 765 billion yen for the business year, the second biggest in its history, after writing off billions of dollars of goodwill and assets in its mobile and energy units and tax credits.

Panasonic's CEO Kazuhiko Tsuga is readying a fresh revival plan for the sprawling electronics conglomerate that he has promised will weed out loss-making or low-profit units. Further restructuring could add to costs and trim profits.

Since announcing the writedowns in October, the company's shares have gained 17 percent compared with a 24 percent gain in the benchmark Nikkei 225.

Its shares fell 1 percent on Friday to close at 592 yen before it released its results for the quarter. ($1 = 91.2600 Japanese yen)